Three Choices
by Gaabyz
Summary: Whatever their choice, getting stuck in the past didn't feel so bad after all, now they had something they never thought they had back. Sakata Gintoki.


**Lesson 1- If you aren't prepared to meet your future self, don't build a time machine!**

Gintoki walked the streets of Edo to Gengai's workshop. He was anxious, because the old man told him that he had a simple and well-paid job for him… that is, he would do almost nothing and eat as many chocolate parfaits as he wanted that day. It was perfect!

Best of all, Kagura and Shinpachi didn't come along, so he wouldn't have to split the money anytime soon. The two brats took the time off to go to the cinema to watch any movie ... Gintoki should spend it all while still having the chance.

"Heeeey, old man!" He called him entering the workshop. "Where are you? ... I wanna start asap, so I'll get my money and spend before Kagura and Shinpachi notice." That was more for reflection aloud than for a warning. Nonetheless, Gengai stepped out of his grease-filled (under a seemingly ordinary car) and greeted him with his toothless smile.

"Oh Ginnoji… long time no see! I'm glad you got my call." He wiped his hands with a white cloth, already faded with dirt. "How are the others? Tama hasn't been around much lately and I'm worried… does she need repairs?"

"Oe, stop fooling around, old man!" Gin knew he would be talking for countless hours and had no patience for that. He wanted the money that would supply his sugar addiction right away. "Tell me ... what job do you want me to do? ... I promise I'll be quick and effective."

"Hehehe… always to the point, Ginnoji." He laughed, amused by the impatience of the silver-haired man. "Sometimes an old man like me needs someone to talk to, you know? My robots are my friends… my children, yet I miss a little human company."

"Instead of building robots, why don't you go to bingo to hunt down some desperate old women for an end-of-life romance? ... They'll enjoy a lonely, depressing widower like you." He shrugged. "Who knows can't you even go to bed with two or three at once?"

"You're the only depressing one here."

"Anyway ..." He cleared his throat. "What do you need from me?"

"I'll be as direct as possible… I need you to go into the future." he said in the most normal tone he could. Gintoki frowned, not understanding where the old man was going.

"Eh? The future? Like… that market that opened around the corner?… Do you want me to find Mirai Nikki?" Gin was trying to find some coherence for that phrase. "Have you been fully senile and are having visions?"

"… What an annoying person…" He started walking, stopping at the corner of the warehouse. There was something big hidden under that mossy green tarp… something Yorozuya never noticed there before. "When I say future, I mean it's the future anyway." He pulled the plastic. As soon as the tarp fell, a nearly five-meter metal machine with a cylindrical shape came into view. It had a hole in the middle that ran through the object to the other side. A control panel in front of it finished gracing the area.

"N… NANI? ! What the fuck is this, ojii-san? !" Gintoki's eyes widened.

"That was the teleportation device at the time I invented it. It can take you anywhere in the future or in the past, as long as it's in a year when the machine still exists ... therefore, 'teleportation'. It works with the highest quality Altana and was very difficult to achieve. "He explained. "Usually I use it to do business with 'my future me' ... sometimes he needs outdated parts and comes to me and sometimes I need advanced parts and I go to him. This is how it works… there's no mistake."

"How the hell was such a thing got exposed under an old tarp in the middle of your warehouse all this time and no one noticed?!" He asked indignantly and the inventor shrugged. Gin sighed. "What exactly do I need to do in this future?"

"Oh, nothing much. I need some parts for some new projects of mine and I'm too old to carry them myself. They're too heavy." The old man told. "Can you help me?"

"If you to pay me I sell even my body." He sneered with a naughty smile and Gengai ran to open the portal. "It's like Rick and Morty, right?" He analyzed the situation carefully.

"Not exactly, but if you want to call it that ... the other Gengai already knows about your likely departure." He turned on the portal. "Good luck Ginnoji… I'll be supervising from here." He sat on a stool and watched a mirror image of his workshop appear as if it were a television.

Gintoki took one last look at Gengai before entering the hole, literally falling into that future that looked more like… wasn't it the same? Yes, the before and after workshop didn't seem that far away. Was he really in the future?

The samurai turned to face the portal… Gengai was still sitting there. He made a positive gesture with his right hand and smiled.

On the other hand, the old man of the future seemed not to be there.

"Hey, old man… can you hear me?" Gintoki asked the flabby man on the other side of the 'line'.

"Of course I do ... I just don't get in there because of fatigue." He stretched. "Where's the other me, huh? ... I told him you were coming."

"… I don't know." He rolled his eyes as he prepared to scream. "Oeeee old man! Remember me?! ... I may have died of diabetes or won the pachinko here, but for now I'm just good and old Yorozuya, working to make a living. Oeee!" Remained scandalous. "Shit." He turned his gaze to the mechanic. "What next?"

"And now that..."

"YAAAAH !" Gengai would even comment, but something came out of the workshop debris and tried to hit the silver from behind.

In one swift motion, Gintoki turned and picked up the kind of stick the unidentified person was holding, pulling it and bringing the person along, making it all go down. It stayed there for a good two minutes.

Gin-san approached.

The person was no more than five feet tall and wore so many black clothes on his face that he looked like a burka. The only thing visible was his hazel eyes almost amber.

That look was no stranger to him.

Was it a child? ... Nah, children didn't dress like that. Maybe it was some fashion of the year, but he doubted it a lot.

Oh… how could he be such an idiot? The answer was pretty obvious!

"You're a dwarf!" He thought aloud as if he won bingo. "… But why the hell would a dwarf be in the middle of this rubble? ... Maybe I hit him too hard, did he die? Huuum… it's the dwarf who keeps the pot of gold in the rubble, right? Where's my gold?"

"Who are you calling a dwarf? !" The little guy got up quickly and narrowed his eyes. "I may be short, but I'd kill you quickly !" He pointed at Yorozuya accusingly.

"… It didn't seem that way to me." He smiled mockingly.

"I… I… who the fuck are you, eh?" He changed the subject. "With that bad hair and dead fish eyes… would you be Sakata?" He frowned.

"Oh… the dwarf knows me." Confirmed still making fun. "How? ... Did I ever default on you? And it would be ironic to mock me, since you have dead fish eyes like mine."

"Stop calling me a dwarf !" His rhetoric even somehow resembled Shinpachi's. Weird. "I know you because… well… because… because I'm Gengai's helper." He concluded by crossing his arms.

"Are you sure? It took you a long time to answer." He asked taking snot from his nose.

"Stop it, onegai." He watched the scene with some disgust.

"… I never saw you around here." Gengai of the past finally commented, analyzing that little creature better. "Are you a robot I recently invented?"

"Yes I am." He nodded. "Gengai made me small, because there are things only small robots can do. For example reach pieces that fall under furniture." He explained quietly. "… Now tell me how the hell you got here, Sakata. If you don't tell me in ten seconds, I'll activate my defense mode and blow you up." Threatened. "Oh, and why is there a Gengai there too?"

"Kami-sama ..." He rolled his eyes. "I am from the past." Gin started to tell. "That Gengai over there is mine, and I just came to do business with your old man. You should know that since you're his helper, right?"

"… Gengai didn't put anything in my memories about owning a time machine, Sakata-baka… but until it makes sense."

"Who's 'baka'?! You old banger!"

"… Anyway, old Gengai is out." Ignored Yorozuya's cheek. "He didn't tell me where he was going, but I think he left in the morning."

"Do you think so?" Gintoki said wryly.

"I restart automatically, so when I woke up he was no longer here. Maybe he went to the market, I don't know." It shrugged.

"Do you know when he comes back?" The machine shook its head no. "Damn it." He snorted. "Did he leave any warning?"

"No ... I didn't even know you would come. What are you looking for exactly?"

"Parts." The old man explained. "My future self isn't much to talk about where he hides them, anyway. Only he knows where they are."

"Oh man… how complicated." Gin ran her hands through his silver hair. "If this shit doesn't stop soon I'll be without buying my chocolate parfait, and I don't want it. Come on ..." He grabbed the robot by the waist and dragged it like a sack of potatoes, starting to walk. "Wow… for a robot, you're very light, don't you think? Are you dieting with some vegetable oil?"

"What do you think you are doing?!" Struggled trying to escape.

"Going to your master, isn't it obvious?" He said carelessly, poking his nasal cavity with his free hand."

"But I don't want to go!" He shouted, still trying to break free. "Let me go!"

"Why don't you wanna go?... argued with the old man? What kind of follower are you?"

"He… he denied me repairs." Said in a tone of hurt pride, crossing his arms. "And I can't go out in the sun either."

"Um? ... Are you a vampire robot?" A Yato?"

"My synthetic skin is too fragile to get solar radiation. And I don't like the sun either."

"Heheh ... I'm glad all these cloths are protecting you, right?" He made a sadistic face and continued to drag him. "There will be no problem."

"Oeee! I don't even like him that much! ... Actually I think my master a shit!" He whimpered. "Do you want a JUMP ?! I'll give you a JUMP!" And even among all these screams and bribes, Gintoki didn't even consider listening to him.

"Wait here, old man… me and this brat project here are going to meet the other old man."

"I'll take care of the portal."

"OK." He confirmed, continuing to walk.

"… Hey Ginnoji." Gengai called him one last time and he turned. "Cover yourself with something to preserve your identity… I always do business with my self, yet he never tells anything about his life so as not to generate paradoxes. That's how it should be with you too… get it?"

"I understand perfectly… people would be shocked if they saw a Gin-san in the same clothes as ten years ago. The animators or Sorachi would be very lazy if they didn't change my clothes, right? ... Even Naruto changed clothes at Shippuden."

"Glad you got the spirit of the thing, Ginnoji." He smiled. Gintoki took advantage of the conversation and picked up some old rags from the floor, thus covering his face and hair.

"We'll be right back, ojii-san." He waved. "Wait here."

Still carrying the robot child like a sack of flour, Gintoki left the workshop, finally going to look for the old mechanic.

"Oh, man ... how hungry." Gengai commented after a few minutes sitting there. "I can't work like this… I need to stop by the market. I think it's okay if I'm fast, right? Yeah… no one will even notice." He got up and walked away.

… And with the inventor's departure, the portal was unprotected.


End file.
